- labels: --> Server
you can send to shawn@terrypc.com if you need more
clarification.
I've been playing on the ladder server
http://settlers.cs.northwestern.edu/server3/index.html
for some time now and on July 10, 2004 ~ 10p.m. MDT I
observed what appeared to be a person using some form
of automated test script program to continually join
games and create chat sessions. The user was able to
use different names and random numbers for the chat
sessions. (It looked like a winrunner script that I've
used many times in development projects and testing).
I also observed that if games were created fast enough,
the test script would not be able to keep up.
The simple fix for this bug is to create an artificial
limit on the number of games you can join and the
number of chat sessions you can create or join from a
given remote host. Since a single host could also
create many different users -- using the IP address
could minimize the conflicts -- (of course this would
affect people using a home network with a common
external IP -- but it would be worth it to prevent some
idiot from continually wrecking other people's games.
I would suggest that you set the limit to 2 or 3 games
that a person could join at one time and that should
solve the problem.
This would also reduce the problem created by some
players who try to manually play in multiple games at
one time.
I hope this is helpful -- please email me if you would
like help with this bug -- I've done a fair bit of java
programming and could assist if you lack time or staffing.
Sincerely,
Shawn Terry